It Isn't Enough
by psychedelic aya
Summary: [Crimson Butterfly] Emotionally scarred, Mio runs out of the All God's Village and does the unthinkable. There is no one to help her now, with Mayu gone. Except, perhaps, the forgotten spirit of Itsuki. – itsuki/mio, and beating the loneliness after death.
1. It Isn't Enough

**Authoress' Notes:** My first ever fic in Fatal Frame! I was nearly asleep when the idea came to me. So here I am! I'm sorry if it'll be bad, but it's my first ever ficlet for this section. It's about Fatal Frame 2. An Itsuki and Mio ficlet! More of a Mio ficlet, actually; but er, I had to put even just a little of Itsuki. Because don't you just love Itsuki?

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own anything.

**SPOILER ALERT!** This is based on the _normal ending_… so, if you haven't finished the game yet and do not wish to be spoiled about the normal ending, please back out. This is a public announcement, thankyouverymuch.

---

**It Isn't Enough**  
_by psychedelic_ _aya_

"Thank you."

Her twin had said that. Mayu had said that even though she had killed her!

(And what of her hands upon her neck—squeezing the life out, out, out and away—

_like the fluttering wings of that crimson shine—yes, Mio, I'll be free as a butterfly—_

Mio could not—would not—accept it. No, no, no—to _hell_ with that!)

Still, the words echoed in her mind, her soul, her whole being.

Mio Amakura ran blindly through the forest, sprinting away to anywhere, no determined path in mind. She could feel the tears sting her eyes, blurring her vision. Maybe, just maybe, she would wake up soon and find everything to be a dream. Maybe the feel of her sister's pulsating life fade away against her grip would go away if she could just open her eyes from this nightmare.

"Mayu!" She screamed into the emptiness, _desperately_, hoping for an answer. She tripped and fell to her knees abruptly, feeling the tattered roots and soil dig against her flesh, causing her slight pain. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Over and over she called, apologized, and wailed.

There was no answer.

But still, "I'm so sorry!"

She stood up again, as if only by the instincts of survival; her footsteps were staggering. She repeated the words over and over as her face was buried in her hands. The tears didn't stop no matter how hard she tried. Her chest ached with pain and her throat hurt as she tried to stop weeping. She had to be strong. That's what her sister wanted.

(_Kill me. I want you to kill me._)

"…But I never wanted to kill her…" Mio murmured in a breath of a whisper, still walking to nowhere. The greenery of the forest called out to her; the sun's light was shining through the trees, and the leaves were fresh with dew. There was no more darkness in this area—forever there would be light. Her sister's death had not been without meaning, since it saved this place.

…But it didn't save her. No no no no _no_—not her. Not her conscience. Not her heart.

Not at all.

"Mayu…" She wept without stopping her pace. She wanted to find a place of solace. "I'm so sorry… I caused you so much pain…!" She remembered the time when they were children, how Mayu had fallen off that steep cliff. It was partly her fault, since she hadn't waited for her. Because of that incident, her twin was forever limp.

And now, also because of her, her twin was forever dead.

"…I want to be one with you…" Mio repeated Sae's words, those words that the ghost had spoken over and over when she saw her in those many flashbacks. "…Crimson Ritual… our fate, our destiny… one sister kills the other…"

She came upon a clearing, on an edge of a cliff. The trees slowly decreased, the forest stayed behind, leaving a brown sandy land upon its wake.

"…I am… a Remaining…" And she stumbled forward, until she reached the edge of the cliff. She stood there, merely inches from taking a great drop. One more step and she would not only fall to be injured, but fall to be dead. This was much higher than what Mayu fell off from, the first time around. "…I am one with my sister…" She took a deep sigh, taking in the surroundings before her. She was high above the forest below now, and from her position she could see the lush trees that sparkled with sun, and along with that, the waters that travelled along inside the greenery.

But oddly, she couldn't see the All God's Village.

She closed her eyes and tried to feel the mark upon her neck. Twins shared pain, as folklore so said. So now, the mark that Mayu's dead body supposedly had was also instilled in her. The butterfly mark.

The mark of a Remaining.

A wind blew. Her hair scattered with the breeze. "Mayu… I am one with you…" A pause. Then afterwards, "Sae, I have done what you wanted…"

Finally, a satisfied smile crept on her lips.

"But…" The smile suddenly faded. Her eyes tore open. "It isn't enough!"

And in a swift motion, with her eyes closed again, she stepped over the edge. Her weight and gravity brought her plunging down the cliff almost immediately, her speed causing the wind to whip fiercely at her hair and her clothes.

"Wait for me… Mayu!"

(_Wait for me wait for me wait for me—can I become a butterfly too?_)

The words vanished with the wind.

She wouldn't have regretted anything if she didn't hear a familiar voice call out to her.

"**Mio! Don't!" **

Mio's eyes widened.

"Itsuki?"

And for the first time, he had called her by her own name.

She smiled at his image in her memory, a smile full of irony, regret, pain… (_we could've been something, Itsuki_) His amethyst eyes pierced into hers, all dread and panic shown. He didn't want her to die.

_We could've been friends._

She then smiled a gentle smile, reaching out to touch his face.

But it was too late.

_We could've been complete._

Her world faded color, then black.

---

**Authoress' Notes:** Yeah, it sucked. But Itsuki is in it, and that makes up for it, maybe, yes? ;)

I suppose this was a little something I thought up to think of what Mio would've done due to the emotional stress, and all. Killing someone, forcibly or not, has a great effect on you, I heard. Ho-hum. Especially if you love the one you killed so much. Plus all the ghosts. I mean, c'mon. Mio has every right to go psycho if she wants.

Though, I am _not_ promoting suicide. Fics like this are done for angst-yummeh-plotwise purposes only.

Smile and don't kill yourself. Someone up there loves you.


	2. It's Alright

**Authoress' Notes:** Thank you to **Licht Sieger** for e-mailing me! Here's the continuation you suggested. I'm sorry it took me so long… but so many things happened…

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Mio nor Itsuki, nor anything from Fatal Frame. They belong to Tecmo!

---

**It's Alright  
**_by psychedelic aya_

She opened her eyes, the world a mere blur to her. Figures came in a haze, shaped like dots in a painting.

Mio Amakura blinked, focusing her vision.

Once.

Twice.

Where was she again?

Moaning, she sat up, ignoring the tremendous pain she felt stinging her whole body. Her head ached like a thousand needles pierced through it. By impulse, she put a dainty hand over the aching part, trying to soothe her migraine.

Her world suddenly blinked black, then a fuzzy gray, then color again. But her eyes were wide open the whole time.

And then, all of a sudden, the pain was gone.

"…What…?" Her own voice seemed foreign to her, as if it had a soft echo she couldn't decipher. But still she knew it was her own. Then, in just above a whisper, "What… happened?"

She stared at her hands—touching them, caressing them. Her whole body was unscathed, as flawless and perfect as before. She admired her own figure, staring at her skin and feeling its smoothness.

But somehow, she felt like this was all wrong.

She stared at her hands with disbelief, trying to recall what she had done before this. There was this feeling of incompleteness inside her, as if a part of her memory had been torn away.

"…Mayu…?" She called out in a shaky voice, the absence of her sister troubling her. What happened? Why wasn't her twin around? Why was she alone here in the forest?

Her hands, as if having a will of it own, suddenly grasped her neck.

And then she remembered.

"…I am… a Remaining…"

Her eyes immediately averted above her, gazing at the heavens. In panic, she searched for anything that had significance. Then she saw it. The cliff she had jumped from.

She had committed suicide.

(_That jump was high, so high—for a moment I only thought I was flying—_)

Mio gasped, staring at her hands again. She was expecting to see some sort of ghostly formation of her body: transparent hands, the ability to pass through walls, and maybe even the ability to fly. But instead, she saw herself like she always was.

Her confusion welled up inside her, eating her consciousness. She couldn't understand anything. If she was dead, why did she seem alive?

Her palm rested on the forest floor, supporting her weight. But then, the moment her skin came in contact with the ground, she immediately withdrew it.

The soil was wet—and then later, she realized… it was her own pool of blood.

By impulse, she stood up, her mouth slightly open in surprise, her eyes wide. She took an intake of breath, her hand covering her mouth.

Her eyes set gaze on where she laid, and there she saw the red liquid that had stained the forest floor and the jagged rocks.

And her body. Her mangled, maimed, bloody body.

The emotions welled inside her. She was dead—she was sure of it.

"N-no…" She backed away slowly, unable to accept reality. She grasped her head with both hands. "No, no, no!" Denying, refusing. She shouted her anger to the empty atmosphere. "T-this isn't happening!" And with indescribable feelings inside her, she ran.

Her rapid footsteps pressed soundly to the grass and leaves on the ground as she sprinted blindly to nowhere (againagain_again_ to nowhere), hoping to find some answers. Or at least someone to give her answers.

But then again—in death, you were always alone.

The tears ran hotly through her face, freely cascading down her cheeks. Occasionally she would waver, and in a cracked whisper, "N-no… n-no…"

…Until she couldn't take it anymore.

"_NOOO_!"

At that moment, her shout echoed throughout the forest.

And at the same time, someone held her by the shoulders.

"**Mio!" **

She could feel her whole body being shaken, as if being awakened. She didn't know who the person was—but his voice seemed awfully familiar. And so without another thought, without even seeing who the person was—she cried in his arms.

Itsuki Tachibana held the shivering girl in his arms, his eyes softening. He knew he held her great thanks since she saved the whole village from the darkness.

…She saved him from the darkness.

"**Mio…"** He called out again, and somehow he knew that she did not realize who he really was. He tried to comfort her. **"Shhh… Mio… stop crying…"** How he called her by a different name was also a mystery to him, but somehow he knew that she wasn't Yae nor Sae—he knew the moment she had killed her sister, the moment she had fulfilled the sacrifice. Yae wouldn't have done such a thing because she was too afraid.

She muffled against him, her tears unstoppable. Then, in a soft whisper, she said, "I'm so sorry Mayu…" Another sniffle. "I'm so sorry… I didn't know what I was doing…"

His eyes widened as she spoke, realizing that even in death, she was still suffering.

"**Mio…"** He murmured, and she just cried some more. He hugged her tighter, trying to cease her tears. **"It's going to be okay, Mio... I'll stay with you."**

She seemed to be surprised at first, as if only then realizing that she was crying in the arms of a total stranger. She tried to pull away, but found that she couldn't. Her hazel eyes abruptly looked up, only to meet amethyst ones. She gasped a little, wondering just what she was doing in the arms of a ghost. "Itsuki…?"

He nodded. **"Mio," **he said again, wiping her tears away.

_Not Yae or anyone else—_"You know who I am?"

He smiled, for the first time since. It was such a beautiful smile—endearing, loving, and perfect—Mio felt all her fears be taken away.

"Thank you."

(_We're both suicides and we'll never reach heaven but it probably won't matter 'til it will, won't it?_)

And so she was dead.

(_And so it's alright._)

But, at least,

(_Because, at least—_)

At least at least at least—

(_We're together._)

She was not alone.

---

**Authoress' Notes:** Yeah, that sucked even more than the first chapter. Hmmm.

Smile, someone up there loves you.

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